One of our projects this year is with the Caravan Project. We had our first pair of kickoff calls over the past week. Our work with the Caravan Project is being sponsored by the NACS Foundation. The goals of our work with the Caravan Project are to help develop educational and marketing materials that help college stores sell digital in multiple formats. Fourteen institutions are participating in our pilot project.
The founder of the Caravan Project is a very interesting fellow named Peter Osnos. He writes a regular column for The Century Foundation called The Platform. A recent column entitled A New Paradigm for Publishing is relevant to this list and worth a quick read.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
More posts -- it must be a Friday
Yes, it must be a Friday, with so many new posts to the blog. I am trying to get better at a post a day, but find that they stack up and I get to them more rarely.
Anyway, here are a couple other little news clips to look at if you have not seen them yet:
Anyway, here are a couple other little news clips to look at if you have not seen them yet:
- Swedish web site offers textbook downloads. Ah, piracy is alive and well. A speaker I heard not long ago mentioned how the publishing industry was doing much the same as the music industry did in the 90s -- which gave rise to music piracy and resulted in companies like Napster and other P2P (peer-to-peer) networking sites for sharing illegal uploads for music. While some of us have long suspected it was only a matter of time for this to happen on the textbook side (and for similar reasons), here is some evidence that it has. An interesting read. Before we follow the music industry though and sue all of these students -- is there a way we can work with them to provide lower cost solutions legally? It took the music industry nearly a decade and a new entrant (iTunes) to come in and completely change the industry in order for a solution to be reached. If we do not want to end up like all the record stores around the corner, perhaps we should be more proactive in finding a solution.
- The Digital Bookmobile. A flashback to the past. I grew up out in the country, and remember when the bookmobile used to park, every other Thursday afternoon, near our town post office. I remember my first trip, and the many books the bookmobile helped me discover. Now OverDrive, Inc., one of the leading players in digital delivery -- particularly in the library space, but also doing some stuff in the college store environment -- is looking to revive the bookmobile concept. Not the small, Harry Potter-like bus I remember as the bookmobile as a child, this will be a tractor-trailor that will focus on interactive training and touring the U.S. library circuit beginning August 2008. The focus of the initiative is to help readers learn more about the digital offerings many libraries now provide -- from e-books, to digital audiobooks, music, and video. Libraries have been on the forefront of many interesting initiatives with digital over the past few decades -- and here is one more. If the digital bookmobile passes by your town I hope you will make an effort to take a look. Perhaps you will get an idea or two that stores could adopt. Certainly we have some things we could learn from our librarian friends. Maybe the idea of a Digital Bookstore (on wheels) is an idea whose time has come as well.
Well, I have a flight to catch, so I hope today's postings are of interest. I would love to hear your ideas, feedback or questions.
Interesting TIME article
Thanks to Pat Krivonak for sharing an article that appeared in the March 24 issue of TIME Magazine. The cover article is on 10 ideas that are changing the world and is worth reading. Topics of global sustainability and customer service are key issues that our industry can help address -- and digital can be part of that solution. I watched an interesting financial report the other night that discussed how sustainability could be the next "wave" for investment. Certainly on the consumer side the ability to engage in self-service and providing more options at lower cost is increasingly critical. I think the discussion about the future of customer service is particularly provocative -- particularly for a society where so many of the jobs are in a service or retail environment. Of course, it opens up new opportunities for customer service -- as we see in the case of Border's concept stores and their digital center. Anyway, an interesting article for the weekend.
If you come across an article you think is interesting and fits in with the focus of this blog, please pass me a link. I would enjoy the reading and others on this list might too. We have been talking in our industry about the need to get even better at sharing knowledge -- here is one mechanism to support that.
If you come across an article you think is interesting and fits in with the focus of this blog, please pass me a link. I would enjoy the reading and others on this list might too. We have been talking in our industry about the need to get even better at sharing knowledge -- here is one mechanism to support that.
Some general news...
A couple interesting tidbits in the news this week. If you receive LJ Dawson's The Big Picture newsletter you would see some short synopses of these stories. Her newsletter is worth subscribing to (that is free) but getting access to archives costs money. Two stories she reported this week, also reported elsewhere, are interesting to note, however.
In the first, she reported on how Amazon has instituted a policy whereby print-on-demand publishers selling through Amazon must use BookSurge (owned by Amazon) for their books rather than any other POD service. This is an interesting move, and received some fairly negative responses. Part of the concern comes from the many thousands of books not in a digital format that is compatible with BookSurge. The challenges with content convergence is just another sign that digital while digital is getting closer, it is not quite there yet. We need to develop better standards for content exchange so that consumers and smaller content providers are not negatively affected by the sometimes high costs of content conversion -- or the limitations that not converting can have on distribution options.
The second interesting story reported this week is a piece on how Ebay has stopped allowing the sale of purely digital products, citing feedback manipulation. Those who have ebooks or other downloadable files to see can use Ebay's Classifieds application. I have not looked into this story further yet, but it is interesting to see that even a company like EBay has trouble selling digital products -- although their problems might be different from ours. I wonder -- are the classified digital sales right next to the personals section? MWM ISO good EB w ETU DRM. :)
In the first, she reported on how Amazon has instituted a policy whereby print-on-demand publishers selling through Amazon must use BookSurge (owned by Amazon) for their books rather than any other POD service. This is an interesting move, and received some fairly negative responses. Part of the concern comes from the many thousands of books not in a digital format that is compatible with BookSurge. The challenges with content convergence is just another sign that digital while digital is getting closer, it is not quite there yet. We need to develop better standards for content exchange so that consumers and smaller content providers are not negatively affected by the sometimes high costs of content conversion -- or the limitations that not converting can have on distribution options.
The second interesting story reported this week is a piece on how Ebay has stopped allowing the sale of purely digital products, citing feedback manipulation. Those who have ebooks or other downloadable files to see can use Ebay's Classifieds application. I have not looked into this story further yet, but it is interesting to see that even a company like EBay has trouble selling digital products -- although their problems might be different from ours. I wonder -- are the classified digital sales right next to the personals section? MWM ISO good EB w ETU DRM. :)
Digital at the AAP meeting earlier in March
I was not able to make it to the AAP meeting about a month ago in DC. I heard there were some interesting sessions. Two of the speakers sound like they were particularly interesting -- Border's CEO (George Jones) who spoke to their process of reinventing themselves, and Amazon senior v-p for worldwide digital media (Steve Kessel) who spoke about Amazon's digital efforts and particularly the Kindle. There is a short synopsis of these talks online. Was anyone there who could share some additional impressions or observations?
Border's Concept in Vegas
I will be away from the blog for the next week, attending meetings in Vegas and SLC. The new concept store opens in Las Vegas today. I am expecting it to be mobbed this evening, but I am very much hoping to get a glimpse of the operations -- and particularly the digital center -- while I am in the neighborhood. There are a lot of news stories on the new opening, but here is one with a good description of the digital center:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080328/clf004.html?.v=101
The question iss though -- does Border's Las Vegas have slot machines too? :)
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080328/clf004.html?.v=101
The question iss though -- does Border's Las Vegas have slot machines too? :)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Competing with Free -- again...
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger recently issued a request for philanthropists to make textbooks free online. The Chronicle's blog, The Wired Campus, recently posted an article about this, which generated a range of interesting feedback.
This is an intesting concept -- and one that has both pros and cons. Originally, I wrote a lengthy response to this plea. I decided in the end that going through all of the pros and cons might only stir up the advocates of one side of the equation or the other. Do we need to find a way to reduce the cost of course materials for students? Yes, and it seems pretty clear that mechanisms will step in to help make that happen in the near-to-midterm future. Open-source or open-access content will be one of those mechanisms.
If I have learned anything, though, in this position over the past three years is that the textbook market is far more complex than a simple list of pros and cons could capture. There are many stakeholders (students, faculty, stores, institutions, wholesalers, publishers, authors, parents, online retailers, editors, software developers, etc., etc., etc.) -- it is a sizeable industry. While I am often among the first to argue that old mature industries have a lot of room for improvement and have many opportunities to create improved efficiency and effectiveness, we must also be careful not to sacrifice quality or value at the sake of cost or in a rush to find a quick fix.
A fomer professor of mine used to say, "You can have things better, faster, or cheaper -- pick any two." I believe digital solutions are moving toward some options that are better and cheaper, but we are still learning how to do that, which will take time. We have many complex dynamics to work out. For example, for many institutions, part of the revenue from textbooks directly contributes to financial aid scholarships or supporting student activities on campus. Thus, when students buy through their college store, they are helping support other services for students on their campus. [Note: Is this universally true, no. I am referring to the majority of cases here, not the exceptions.] If stores went to a break-even model tomorrow, covering only costs and generating no profits, some other mechanism would need to step in to cover the revenue shortfall. Because most US academic institutions are heavily tuition-driven or tuition-dependent, either services would need to be cut, or tuition and fees would have to be increased. Again, that does NOT mean that we cannot or should not find ways to reduce the cost of course materials. Philanthropy could be part of that solution. Digital could be part of that solution. Faculty could be part of that solution. Other stakeholders and new entrants to the market could also be part of that solution.
For stores, one way we can help is to provide students options or choices. Digital gives us more opportunities to provide more options. For example, we find that students prefer to read the print, but study from the digital. Faculty contribute greatly to the cost of textbooks -- something I never knew or understood as a faculty member, but now have greater appreciation for having seen more of the economic models embedded in current industry business models. There are ways through the stores that we can still support our institutions, while providing better value at lower costs for students. Many of us are working on those solutions--but that will take some time.
In the interim, philanthropists could help by creating textbook scholarships at institutions, or supporting initiatives that help make quality textbooks more affordable to those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. And to put my money where my mouth is -- I did create an endowed scholarship at my undergraduate alma mater to help defray educational costs for students as they approach their junior and senior years. What would be ideal is to help every institution have fully-endowed financial aid, like we see at Princeton U -- so that no student should be denied a quality education because of the cost. Fully endowed education would make textbooks, and in fact education, appear to be more free for those who need financial assistance most. A daunting goal -- but one equally worth pursuing.
Okay, okay -- so I still wrote a lengthy response to Larry's plea. I probably still managed to stir up advocates on different sides of the equation. I will endeavor to stay off my soapbox going forward. :)
This is an intesting concept -- and one that has both pros and cons. Originally, I wrote a lengthy response to this plea. I decided in the end that going through all of the pros and cons might only stir up the advocates of one side of the equation or the other. Do we need to find a way to reduce the cost of course materials for students? Yes, and it seems pretty clear that mechanisms will step in to help make that happen in the near-to-midterm future. Open-source or open-access content will be one of those mechanisms.
If I have learned anything, though, in this position over the past three years is that the textbook market is far more complex than a simple list of pros and cons could capture. There are many stakeholders (students, faculty, stores, institutions, wholesalers, publishers, authors, parents, online retailers, editors, software developers, etc., etc., etc.) -- it is a sizeable industry. While I am often among the first to argue that old mature industries have a lot of room for improvement and have many opportunities to create improved efficiency and effectiveness, we must also be careful not to sacrifice quality or value at the sake of cost or in a rush to find a quick fix.
A fomer professor of mine used to say, "You can have things better, faster, or cheaper -- pick any two." I believe digital solutions are moving toward some options that are better and cheaper, but we are still learning how to do that, which will take time. We have many complex dynamics to work out. For example, for many institutions, part of the revenue from textbooks directly contributes to financial aid scholarships or supporting student activities on campus. Thus, when students buy through their college store, they are helping support other services for students on their campus. [Note: Is this universally true, no. I am referring to the majority of cases here, not the exceptions.] If stores went to a break-even model tomorrow, covering only costs and generating no profits, some other mechanism would need to step in to cover the revenue shortfall. Because most US academic institutions are heavily tuition-driven or tuition-dependent, either services would need to be cut, or tuition and fees would have to be increased. Again, that does NOT mean that we cannot or should not find ways to reduce the cost of course materials. Philanthropy could be part of that solution. Digital could be part of that solution. Faculty could be part of that solution. Other stakeholders and new entrants to the market could also be part of that solution.
For stores, one way we can help is to provide students options or choices. Digital gives us more opportunities to provide more options. For example, we find that students prefer to read the print, but study from the digital. Faculty contribute greatly to the cost of textbooks -- something I never knew or understood as a faculty member, but now have greater appreciation for having seen more of the economic models embedded in current industry business models. There are ways through the stores that we can still support our institutions, while providing better value at lower costs for students. Many of us are working on those solutions--but that will take some time.
In the interim, philanthropists could help by creating textbook scholarships at institutions, or supporting initiatives that help make quality textbooks more affordable to those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. And to put my money where my mouth is -- I did create an endowed scholarship at my undergraduate alma mater to help defray educational costs for students as they approach their junior and senior years. What would be ideal is to help every institution have fully-endowed financial aid, like we see at Princeton U -- so that no student should be denied a quality education because of the cost. Fully endowed education would make textbooks, and in fact education, appear to be more free for those who need financial assistance most. A daunting goal -- but one equally worth pursuing.
Okay, okay -- so I still wrote a lengthy response to Larry's plea. I probably still managed to stir up advocates on different sides of the equation. I will endeavor to stay off my soapbox going forward. :)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Another interesting blog...
Here's another place to go for some interesting discussions on digital content and publishing. The blog is Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog. It has a variety of interesting content. The recent interview of Jim Nye, long time professional in this space was recently interviewed on the blog. Jim's response to the last question asked was one that I thought was particularly well suited for anyone in any role in such a turbulent, change-filled environment -- such as what college stores are seeing today. His response was:
This is some of the same messaging we have been passing stores as we talk about the store of the future and developments in the digital space. No matter how good we are at relationships now, we must continue to get better. The value is in the network of relationships.
Anway, JOe Wikert's blog has a number of interesting postings, and certainly more of the interview with Jim Nye is worth reading for readers of this blog.
JN: Network, network, network. Know the people who are working in your marketspace, learn what their interests are, how they do their business and establish friendly relationships with them and remember who they are. They will be going places in their companies (or maybe the one you work for) and become an amazing resource. And do not restrict yourself to meeting people in your specific business. If they are on your campuses or at the meetings you attend you need to know who they are and what they do. Having this kind of perspective not only will pay off in the future as references, it will enhance your work with your primary targets if you better understand all the work of the people in their world.
This is some of the same messaging we have been passing stores as we talk about the store of the future and developments in the digital space. No matter how good we are at relationships now, we must continue to get better. The value is in the network of relationships.
Anway, JOe Wikert's blog has a number of interesting postings, and certainly more of the interview with Jim Nye is worth reading for readers of this blog.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Follett acquires Fourteen40
In an interesting move, Follett Corporation announced today in a press release that they are acquiring Fourteen40. Follett is one of the largest lease store operators in North America. Fourteen40 is an interesting company that I have watched and have had some interest in for some time. Fourteen40 produces a social networking solution for e-textbooks called CafeScribe. The product has received a variety of good media attention over the past year or so. This is a very interesting partnership and we will be sure to watch how Follett's digital strategy unfolds over the course of the year.
Interestingly, this acquisition comes on the heels of another acquisition of Follett just a few one month ago on February 25 when they acquired Varsity Group, Inc. -- a company that provides online textbook sales and services. A copy of that press release is also available.
I can think of a couple other acquisitions that would really round out Follett's digital portfolio, so it will be interesting to watch and see if any other news emerges in the next few weeks or months. Companies are starting to hone in on what the digital environment for textbooks might look like. We are working in that direction as well. We are refining a partnership model that should guide and help prioritize our initiatives going forward. Much to do!
Interestingly, this acquisition comes on the heels of another acquisition of Follett just a few one month ago on February 25 when they acquired Varsity Group, Inc. -- a company that provides online textbook sales and services. A copy of that press release is also available.
I can think of a couple other acquisitions that would really round out Follett's digital portfolio, so it will be interesting to watch and see if any other news emerges in the next few weeks or months. Companies are starting to hone in on what the digital environment for textbooks might look like. We are working in that direction as well. We are refining a partnership model that should guide and help prioritize our initiatives going forward. Much to do!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Questions for the week...
Finally (for today), a colleague passed along a short posting from earlier in the week under the Wired Campus section of the Chronicle. The article is entitled: Tech Therapy: 'If We Don't Pay Attention to IT, We're Dead in the Water.' The quick 60-second (max) piece interviews the President of Western Iowa Tech Community College.
What are those things that will leave stores "dead in the water" if we do not think about them? How could we take the idea to look outside our industry for new products, services, or concepts that might help us better serve students and our other customers? Of particular interest in this blog, how might digital play into the answer to these two questions?
Happy spring-
What are those things that will leave stores "dead in the water" if we do not think about them? How could we take the idea to look outside our industry for new products, services, or concepts that might help us better serve students and our other customers? Of particular interest in this blog, how might digital play into the answer to these two questions?
Happy spring-
Why stores should not wait to experiment with digital...
I received the following e-mail inquiry in the past week, and thought it would be worth sharing. I changed the content a little to make the identity of the writer more anonymous, but in essance, this is what the person wrote:
The following was my response -- updated to include a new development from the last few days.
All that being said, at NACS we are working hard at helping address these challenges for stores, while at the same time trying to provide lower cost solutions for students. For stores this can be doubly difficult because of the complex nature of store economics. Most college stores give revenue back to the institution, which is perhaps most often used to support student activities and student resources on campus. So stores are under pressure to increase revenue. At the same time stores recognize that students have options, and that price is a great concern. In some cases the institutional sources telling stores to generate more revenue are also the same sources telling stores to reduce prices. That is a difficult set of demands to balance - particularly when revenue for most stores comes primarily from textbooks. As digital course materials become more prevalent on campus, these pressures will get tighter for those stores who have not begun to work on campus relationships and rethinking their store capabilities, products and services in advance. Thus, it is better for stores to work for a future that may be just 18 months away than believe in the hope that we may have five more years before the digital impact is felt.
Thoughts or opinions?
Dear Mark-
I seem to remember a discussion from last year where we
came out feeling like things (digital) might be 5 years off. I thought I
heard at CAMEX that we are now looking at 18 months. What is your latest
& greatest crystal ball look like? Any of your current thoughts always
appreciated?
From Crystal Ball Reader
The following was my response -- updated to include a new development from the last few days.
Hi Crystal Ball Reader,
5 years seems realistic for perhaps the bigger shift, but 18 months is more realistic for the point by which more stores will start feeling a bigger impact of digital. If they wait more than 18 months to do anything it could be too late. Why? A couple recent events have spurred this.
- First, Amazon's recent flirtations with entering the market. They have approached several institutions - large, small, public, private and for-profit. From what we have been able to learn from a couple of those institutions, it appears that they are proposing a model where the campus deliver the Kindle via a laptop-program-type initiative (which can be done several ways). Students could then download the textbooks to the Kindle at a reduced cost and some money would go back to the institution. So far it is IT that is being approached, not us. I have not been successful yet at getting a contact at Amazon to talk with us. If they tackle this market full-force, they could change things for us quite radically, quite quickly. And you know they will be advertising their sales not ours. I just received a draft article from a CIO proposing a program like this where 80% of the student textbooks would be delivered over the Kindle on ampus and what that would mean for campus stakeholders - although he forgot to mention the stores. I am supposed to review and provide feedback as an anonymous reviewer. So, Amazon could speed things up.
- Apple is rumored to be working on a reader. We also know that they have signed agreements with publishers to offer a large number of textbooks via iTunesU within the next 2-4 years. I hope to have another update on this before long, but if Apple enters the market in force, it again could mean trouble for us.
- About 10 days before CAMEX I was at a publisher meeting. One interesting point made there was a statistic given by one of the academic publishers who noted that the conversion rate from print to digital this year hit the 2-3 percent mark. Seems low, yes? That happens to be the same conversion rate from traditional media to digital that iTunes had in its first year. Four years later 85 percent of college Freshmen were carrying around iPods and buying music digitally.
- Another item out of that publisher meeting, that I have now heard repeated in other venues, is that the publishers plan to approach institutions and push licensing of digital textbooks. They described this as "the solution" - reducing textbook costs and eliminating the used textbook market. It was how they saw getting the textbook to quote "appear to be as lose to free as possible" for students. I find this approach troubling, as licensing is not as innocent or inexpensive solution as it might appear on the surface. I expect to see a big push on this going into the fall. If an institution decides to digitally license the content and provide textbooks electronically via this method (and you know some will) the impact on the ampus store could be significant. This item seems to be the most logical or realistic threat to our timeline at the moment.
- Open source content could be a threat. It probably will eat only a small chunk, and it is something that we may be able to work with, so that is a minor concern at this time, but much of that content is likely to be digital - increasing available inventory and alternative solutions.
- There is CourseSmart, which will have the largest collection of digital textbook assets. They are popping up all over and will be working with many more institutions over the next year. There may be other companies they are in conversation with as well (I would assume). At least one institution has seen adoption figures of the CourseSmart option at 10 percent of enrollment across the courses tested, with one class reaching 20 percent of enrollment.
- McGraw-Hill made some interesting remarks regarding digital this week in a call for the financial media. Of particular note, I thought, was their plan to have all of their front list available for sampling by August. This signals, yet again, that the barrier of insufficient digital inventory is dropping.
- Finally, the recent tests in Ohio under the OhioLINK program are going to make things much more difficult for us. In their pilot tests, they got over 90 percent of the students in the trial courses to adopt the digital option. That is not a typo - 54 out of 55 students in one class, 54 out of 56 in another, adopted the digital. When compared against a class using just print, those students using the digital performed equivalently. I spoke to one professor involved in a pilot on another campus this semester and he has over 100 students in his large intro-psych course using the digital/e-book option this semester. Their prototype will be expanding to other institutions and large-adoption courses over the next few semesters - but we are already hearing about some of their results in other states.
So - while it may be five years before we see high levels of adoption across the board, I think we will not have that long before we have a larger critical mass of these anecdotal instances of higher adoption. Some of these models could change things overnight. I would rather plan on 18 months and find out we have five years to work with than the opposite.
All that being said, at NACS we are working hard at helping address these challenges for stores, while at the same time trying to provide lower cost solutions for students. For stores this can be doubly difficult because of the complex nature of store economics. Most college stores give revenue back to the institution, which is perhaps most often used to support student activities and student resources on campus. So stores are under pressure to increase revenue. At the same time stores recognize that students have options, and that price is a great concern. In some cases the institutional sources telling stores to generate more revenue are also the same sources telling stores to reduce prices. That is a difficult set of demands to balance - particularly when revenue for most stores comes primarily from textbooks. As digital course materials become more prevalent on campus, these pressures will get tighter for those stores who have not begun to work on campus relationships and rethinking their store capabilities, products and services in advance. Thus, it is better for stores to work for a future that may be just 18 months away than believe in the hope that we may have five more years before the digital impact is felt.
Thoughts or opinions?
IDPF January 2008 e-book data released
In other news this week IDPF released eBook sales statistics for January 2008. The statistics are limited to trade books and roughly a dozen publishers. The data does show an interesting trend line though. The site has links to other interesting e-book statistics as well. Here is the current graph, which you can also find on their site in a slightly larger format with a little more detailed trend data:
Notice the slope of the line. That is an improving trajectory. The volume is still low, but the trend is goinig in the expected direction.
Audio e-books DRM free
Overdrive announced this week in a press release that they would be increasing their inventory and capability to distribute mp3 audio books to booksellers and libraries. Borders will be one of the first stores to have this capability added to their repetoire at the concept stores. Overdrive is already an interesting player in the digital content space, perhaps best known for their works with libraries and the IDPF standards group. In this latest announcement it is not the ability to download the content onto the iPod/iPhone, or thousands of other MP3 players that is of interest (although that is interesting). Instead, the most interesting aspect of this press release is their indication that they will allow these downloads without DRM. This is a great move forward, as others have noted the problems and complexity DRM creates in the marketplace. We have seen similar movement in the past few months in the music industry as well. Chalk up one for the consumer!
OverDrive to Distribute MP3 Audiobooks to Booksellers and Libraries
Download audiobooks compatible with iPod, Zune, and thousands of MP3 players
OverDrive to Distribute MP3 Audiobooks to Booksellers and Libraries
Download audiobooks compatible with iPod, Zune, and thousands of MP3 players
Friday, March 14, 2008
Trustees Set Strategy for Digital Course Materials
My thanks to the group of individuals on the NACS Digital Content Strategic Planning Task Force. The work product created in the time available was great, and was recently approved at the NACS Board meeting at CAMEX. We posted a summary article online today.
The document produced is really more of a strategic vision document than a plan, although it does contain some specific action items. More generally, the plan outlines three priority areas for activity and action: strategic partnerships, enhanced trade infrastructure, and education and awareness. Each of the areas has 4-5 action areas, with generally two items being identified as top priority within each area. A copy of the full document is currently available to NACS members only.
Here is an overview of the priorities, without some of the added detail and description that goes with each. Certainly I welcome discussion or ideas about how to implement any of these items or on the direction itself:
Partnerships
1. (Top priority) Enhance relations and partnerships with publishers and CourseSmart.
2. (Top priority) Assist stores with campus-based partnerships with multiple constituent groups.
3. Enhance industry relations among other trade and retail organizations.
4. Continue developing new partnerships and relationships with a range of organizations.
Enhanced Trade Infrastructure
1. (Top priority) Reposition stores as an essential course materials information center on campus.
2. (Top priority) Create a suite of business models for stores of all shapes and sizes.
3. (Top priority) Assertively pursue improved retail technology offerings for the industry.
4. Engage in more formal knowledge management activities.
5. Continue to explore and consider new and innovative models for the association.
Education and Awareness
1. (Top priority) Develop and implement new approaches to digital content education.
2. (Top priority) Use more of the “store voice” to raise industry awareness.
3. Develop education that places greater emphasis on strategic thinking and planning.
4. Develop basic programs on digital content and e-commerce.
The document produced is really more of a strategic vision document than a plan, although it does contain some specific action items. More generally, the plan outlines three priority areas for activity and action: strategic partnerships, enhanced trade infrastructure, and education and awareness. Each of the areas has 4-5 action areas, with generally two items being identified as top priority within each area. A copy of the full document is currently available to NACS members only.
Here is an overview of the priorities, without some of the added detail and description that goes with each. Certainly I welcome discussion or ideas about how to implement any of these items or on the direction itself:
Partnerships
1. (Top priority) Enhance relations and partnerships with publishers and CourseSmart.
2. (Top priority) Assist stores with campus-based partnerships with multiple constituent groups.
3. Enhance industry relations among other trade and retail organizations.
4. Continue developing new partnerships and relationships with a range of organizations.
Enhanced Trade Infrastructure
1. (Top priority) Reposition stores as an essential course materials information center on campus.
2. (Top priority) Create a suite of business models for stores of all shapes and sizes.
3. (Top priority) Assertively pursue improved retail technology offerings for the industry.
4. Engage in more formal knowledge management activities.
5. Continue to explore and consider new and innovative models for the association.
Education and Awareness
1. (Top priority) Develop and implement new approaches to digital content education.
2. (Top priority) Use more of the “store voice” to raise industry awareness.
3. Develop education that places greater emphasis on strategic thinking and planning.
4. Develop basic programs on digital content and e-commerce.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
EDUCAUSE Review article
I have had a couple requests for the most recent ECAR article on e-books in higher education. It has just been reprinted in the EDUCAUSE Review and is now available online. The original article was written in the fall, shortly before the Kindle came out. An author's note was added to the end of this article, but if you read through this blog you will see that too is now almost out of date. Just another sign of how quickly things are changing these days. Opinions and ideas about the article are welcome.
Another new blog
Thanks to a reader, I would like to point folks to yet another blog on education, technology, digital content and other topics. Alison Pendergast is an accomplished veteran in the area of textbooks and digital content who works for Pearson Education. Her blog is new, but she is collecting an interesting set of stories, blogs, and pieces of information that people who enjoy this blog might also find interesting. You can check out her blog at: http://www.alisonpendergast.com/
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Shelf Awareness Article
Thanks to John Mutter for the interesting interesting write-up of both my session and the NACS StudentWatch study report session from CAMEX last week. The article appeears in today's issue of Shelf Awareness. Shelf Awareness has many good articles on the bookselling industry on a regular basis and is worth some time perusing more generally. However, if you are just looking for a quick summary of the CAMEX session, check out his piece which captures the bulk of it and wraps in some of the extra data from the NACS StudentWatch study report quite nicely.
The Amazon among us
So earlier this month I hinted that a new development might be underway. At this point we still are collecting information. However, I will share what we know or have been told. I am still being forwarded among e-mail addresses at Amazon, so I have not been able to confirm anything with them yet.
So what we know is that Amazon has approached the IT department at several institutions -- public, private and for-profit. These include campuses with lease, independent, and private stores. One of the CIOs I spoke to could not tell me much, but here is the general gist of what he shared. He tells me that Amazon is essentially proposing something similar to a laptop program, which many universities have invested in over the past decade, which is often run out of the IT area of the institution. These programs take several forms -- fromm rentals, to purchases, to accounting for the cost in the price of tuition or fees, etc. The idea is that the Kindles would be used in teh classroom for the downloading of course materials -- textbooks, readings, etc. and that the institution/IT area would potentially receive a commission on downloaded textbooks.
We also learned of a project at Gettysburg College where the CIO has involved the store. I spoke with the store manager there aws she discussed their project at CAMEX. In this case, the IT department bought about 30 Kindles and are testing them in an upper level course. At the end of the semester the CIO and campus store will conduct a focus group with the students about their experience with the Kindle, what they would be willing to pay for the device, pros and cons of the device for textbook delivery, etc. We have asked the store manager to work with us to write up an article of their experience after the end of the semester.
Not a whole lot of information, but at least a little bit. This is an important development for our industry as it signals a few things. First, new players are entering the market. A big player like Amazon could have a large impact in a short time period. This is also soemthing of a different approach for Amazon, based on what else we have seen, so that is an interesting departure and we do not know exactly what that means for the campus stores. Second, it is another signal that college stores MUST improve campus relations and talk with other campus departments, such as that of the CIO. This is an opportunity to both educate campus stakeholders as to the value provided by stores, and an opportunity to learn more about what is happening with course materials and digital on campus.
If we learn more about the Amazon offering, or are able to get a response to our inquiries, I will post that information here as appropriate. The stores offer a good partnering option for Amazon and we will be trying to find a way to bring this opportunity to the store community.
So what we know is that Amazon has approached the IT department at several institutions -- public, private and for-profit. These include campuses with lease, independent, and private stores. One of the CIOs I spoke to could not tell me much, but here is the general gist of what he shared. He tells me that Amazon is essentially proposing something similar to a laptop program, which many universities have invested in over the past decade, which is often run out of the IT area of the institution. These programs take several forms -- fromm rentals, to purchases, to accounting for the cost in the price of tuition or fees, etc. The idea is that the Kindles would be used in teh classroom for the downloading of course materials -- textbooks, readings, etc. and that the institution/IT area would potentially receive a commission on downloaded textbooks.
We also learned of a project at Gettysburg College where the CIO has involved the store. I spoke with the store manager there aws she discussed their project at CAMEX. In this case, the IT department bought about 30 Kindles and are testing them in an upper level course. At the end of the semester the CIO and campus store will conduct a focus group with the students about their experience with the Kindle, what they would be willing to pay for the device, pros and cons of the device for textbook delivery, etc. We have asked the store manager to work with us to write up an article of their experience after the end of the semester.
Not a whole lot of information, but at least a little bit. This is an important development for our industry as it signals a few things. First, new players are entering the market. A big player like Amazon could have a large impact in a short time period. This is also soemthing of a different approach for Amazon, based on what else we have seen, so that is an interesting departure and we do not know exactly what that means for the campus stores. Second, it is another signal that college stores MUST improve campus relations and talk with other campus departments, such as that of the CIO. This is an opportunity to both educate campus stakeholders as to the value provided by stores, and an opportunity to learn more about what is happening with course materials and digital on campus.
If we learn more about the Amazon offering, or are able to get a response to our inquiries, I will post that information here as appropriate. The stores offer a good partnering option for Amazon and we will be trying to find a way to bring this opportunity to the store community.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
A Question about eBooks
As noted in the prior posting, I recently received a few e-mails based on the article for CCRA's Bridge. I would like to take a moment, though to share one of the e-mails I received and provide a more open response as the writer asks a set of questions that I often hear. I think these are good questions for stores to be asking. She writes:
Congratulations on taking the first, and in some ways the most important step -- looking around and asking questions. Your questions and comments are direct and get to the root of things, which I always thought is the best place to start.
Scoping out the Sony Reader.
I am glad to hear that you took a few moments to scope out the Sony Reader at Borders. They have the newer edition of the Sony Reader, which is a little better than the first edition which I own. I just played with my first Amazon reader (the Kindle) this past week. It has some definite advantages as readers go at this stage -- with some keyboard capabilty and wireless connectivity. Another new reader due out this year is the Readius by Polymer Vision (another blog posting on that to follow shortly), and even Apple may soon enter this market (or maybe not). All of these technologies have some commonality, so getting some exposure to the "first generation" will give you some sense of how the technology is progressing. My caveat though -- you really have to play with these devices for a little bit before they become comfortable. I found my Sony Reader to be a bit "kludgey" at first, but once I got the hang of its quirks I really like it -- and travel with it everywhere. But to your questions...
Are ebooks only available as on-line purchases through places like Amazon and the like?
No. It is true that e-books are mostly only available as online purchases. This is part of the reason why it is important for stores to have the capability to handle online transactions. In addition to Amazon, many publishers offer direct content sales. Some publishers, like Harlequin, have some very innovative models for selling and delivering their content over a wide range of mobile devices from the Sony Reader to the cell phone. Many e-book titles are also available through public and campus libraries. On the campus library side there are several e-book services available for subscription, some of which carry textbooks (mostly in the computer science area). 24x7 is one example of such a service that is available on many campuses. So as you are looking around to see what else is available, do not forget to check out other options on your own campus.
Are stores actually selling ebooks, and if so, how?
Your questions on this topic are particularly excellent. Yes. There are stores selling digital content. In fact we are starting to see some of the first examples over the past 1-2 semesters where e-book adoptions are reaching 10 percent of enrollment or higher in some classes. In the past week I spoke with college store managers who reported ebook adoptions as high as 35 and 45 percent of sales in specific courses. I attended sessions at another meeting where faculty are experimenting with e-books and saw adoptions as high as 92 percent of enrollment in a few cases. In at least two of those cases the faculty member is trying to figure out how to work with the stores to offer an easier and more convenient method for students to purchase the content.
It is probably true that the majority of stores that are currently selling e-books are using a model where the store "stocks" a product -- such as a card with an access code, or a card where the access code is generated at the register through the POS system. We are seeing other models emerge, however. There are the affiliate programs with companies like CourseSmart and Cengage. In these cases the store often links to the publisher (or other provider) site. These have been controversial among college stores to this point, which is a topic we can discuss more. There are also cases where stores sell CD's pre-loaded with digital course materials. That approach is probably more common in some of the dental schools or health science stores where curricula are more structured. We have a few institutions that are selling e-books at the point of course registration, where the students, after registering for a course, are directed to a connection with the college store where they can purchase the textbooks (print or electronic) for the course. This, of course, requires some additional systems integration work to occur. Such models, often developed in conjunction with companies like VitalSource or CafeScribe, allow students to download the e-book through what appears to be the store's own website, making the solution look as if the store is selling ebooks just like other books. A couple stores are experimenting with selling e-books, such as custom coursepacks, to their students through iTunesU too. There are other examples of stores selling digital beyond the traditional card-stock solution as well. I think that approach is a good way to get started with digital, but we are learning that other approaches may be as or more effective.
I think what is important at this stage is that we are seeing some experimentation among stores. The card-stock model has some advantages, but in many cases we have not seen great sell-through via that approach. That may mean we need to learn how to market those options better. I have heard from some stores that sell-through of traditional books was higher when the e-book was offered along-side it. The reasons offered suggest that students trust the store more because they are being offered choice and they see that the store is trying to provide some lower-cost options.
Thanks again for your questions, and please keep asking them -- of me and others.
-M
Dear CJ,Dear Mark,
I just finished reading your Bridge article about ebooks (What Is It ThatOur Customers Really Want?). I am very curious about ebooks and just spent some time in a Borders scoping out the Sony Reader. It appears as though ebooks are still only available as on-line purchases through places likeAmazon and the like. Are you aware of any college bookstores that areactually selling ebooks in their stores or on their own websites, and if so,how are they doing it? Are they linking their websites to other sites, orare they able to sell ebooks just like other books? Are ebooks even goingto be something that a store would "stock" (ie: a card with an access codeor something)?
Thank you for your time!
Sincerely,
[Curious Jane]
Congratulations on taking the first, and in some ways the most important step -- looking around and asking questions. Your questions and comments are direct and get to the root of things, which I always thought is the best place to start.
Scoping out the Sony Reader.
I am glad to hear that you took a few moments to scope out the Sony Reader at Borders. They have the newer edition of the Sony Reader, which is a little better than the first edition which I own. I just played with my first Amazon reader (the Kindle) this past week. It has some definite advantages as readers go at this stage -- with some keyboard capabilty and wireless connectivity. Another new reader due out this year is the Readius by Polymer Vision (another blog posting on that to follow shortly), and even Apple may soon enter this market (or maybe not). All of these technologies have some commonality, so getting some exposure to the "first generation" will give you some sense of how the technology is progressing. My caveat though -- you really have to play with these devices for a little bit before they become comfortable. I found my Sony Reader to be a bit "kludgey" at first, but once I got the hang of its quirks I really like it -- and travel with it everywhere. But to your questions...
Are ebooks only available as on-line purchases through places like Amazon and the like?
No. It is true that e-books are mostly only available as online purchases. This is part of the reason why it is important for stores to have the capability to handle online transactions. In addition to Amazon, many publishers offer direct content sales. Some publishers, like Harlequin, have some very innovative models for selling and delivering their content over a wide range of mobile devices from the Sony Reader to the cell phone. Many e-book titles are also available through public and campus libraries. On the campus library side there are several e-book services available for subscription, some of which carry textbooks (mostly in the computer science area). 24x7 is one example of such a service that is available on many campuses. So as you are looking around to see what else is available, do not forget to check out other options on your own campus.
Are stores actually selling ebooks, and if so, how?
Your questions on this topic are particularly excellent. Yes. There are stores selling digital content. In fact we are starting to see some of the first examples over the past 1-2 semesters where e-book adoptions are reaching 10 percent of enrollment or higher in some classes. In the past week I spoke with college store managers who reported ebook adoptions as high as 35 and 45 percent of sales in specific courses. I attended sessions at another meeting where faculty are experimenting with e-books and saw adoptions as high as 92 percent of enrollment in a few cases. In at least two of those cases the faculty member is trying to figure out how to work with the stores to offer an easier and more convenient method for students to purchase the content.
It is probably true that the majority of stores that are currently selling e-books are using a model where the store "stocks" a product -- such as a card with an access code, or a card where the access code is generated at the register through the POS system. We are seeing other models emerge, however. There are the affiliate programs with companies like CourseSmart and Cengage. In these cases the store often links to the publisher (or other provider) site. These have been controversial among college stores to this point, which is a topic we can discuss more. There are also cases where stores sell CD's pre-loaded with digital course materials. That approach is probably more common in some of the dental schools or health science stores where curricula are more structured. We have a few institutions that are selling e-books at the point of course registration, where the students, after registering for a course, are directed to a connection with the college store where they can purchase the textbooks (print or electronic) for the course. This, of course, requires some additional systems integration work to occur. Such models, often developed in conjunction with companies like VitalSource or CafeScribe, allow students to download the e-book through what appears to be the store's own website, making the solution look as if the store is selling ebooks just like other books. A couple stores are experimenting with selling e-books, such as custom coursepacks, to their students through iTunesU too. There are other examples of stores selling digital beyond the traditional card-stock solution as well. I think that approach is a good way to get started with digital, but we are learning that other approaches may be as or more effective.
I think what is important at this stage is that we are seeing some experimentation among stores. The card-stock model has some advantages, but in many cases we have not seen great sell-through via that approach. That may mean we need to learn how to market those options better. I have heard from some stores that sell-through of traditional books was higher when the e-book was offered along-side it. The reasons offered suggest that students trust the store more because they are being offered choice and they see that the store is trying to provide some lower-cost options.
Thanks again for your questions, and please keep asking them -- of me and others.
-M
What is it that our customers really want?
Recently I was asked to write a short piece for the monthly newsletter of Campus Computer Resellers Alliance. After some thought, I decided to write a piece that captured some of my recent thoughts and perspectives stemming from articles, developments, conferences, and discussions. The short article has already generated a few e-mails and I think it poses an important question for stores to think about more broadly -- what is it that our customers want? I am planning another posting to this blog in response to one of the e-mails I received in response to the article. However, I thought that it might be useful to share the article here so that others might chime in with some of their ideas and perspectives. You can find the article at:
http://www.ccra.org/bridge/news/Feb2008-Nelson.asp?id=bridge
http://www.ccra.org/bridge/news/Feb2008-Nelson.asp?id=bridge
Return from CAMEX
Well, the trip to CAMEX was informative and fun as always. Much has happened in the past week and as I dig out through the many e-mails and follow-ups that come from a week of travel I have several items to post to the blog. Watch in the coming days for some posts about CAMEX itself (and some of the interesting sessions I attended), an update on our strategic vision document for the digital content area (most of which I will post here), news on the Amazon initiative in higher education, news on other initiatives including OhioLink and CourseSmart, a discussion on open access e-textbooks, and much more.
I am glad too to see interest in this blog growing. I received a few good e-mails over the past two weeks and some requests for future topics. I also received messages from folks on three other continents and it is interesting to see how these topics play out on an international level. In the past six months I have now spoken with individuals in nine different countries about digital content. I will see if I can create a future posting that captures some of these discussions. I am starting to see how some folks say blogging can be a full-time job, as I have a long list of items I think would be useful to post here, but not so much time to get them all in.
More posts to follow...
I am glad too to see interest in this blog growing. I received a few good e-mails over the past two weeks and some requests for future topics. I also received messages from folks on three other continents and it is interesting to see how these topics play out on an international level. In the past six months I have now spoken with individuals in nine different countries about digital content. I will see if I can create a future posting that captures some of these discussions. I am starting to see how some folks say blogging can be a full-time job, as I have a long list of items I think would be useful to post here, but not so much time to get them all in.
More posts to follow...
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Something fun to tide you over...
I am about to leave for CAMEX and from there to OCDE, so I will be away for a week. I know I promised an update yesterday on some new developments, but I am afraid that will have to wait until after the NACS board meets later this week. In the interim, I thought you might find the following site interesting -- it shows a number of new technologies in prototype stage, some of which are very cool.
http://tides.ws/2007/11/06/the-future-of-technology-its-here/
I, personally, would love one of the Nokia phones pictured near the top of the list. As for the lamp inside the book? Well, I am not sure what the market demand will be for that one.
Have a good week. I will work on posting from the road, although usually the format ends up pretty off when I do that. We'll see.
http://tides.ws/2007/11/06/the-future-of-technology-its-here/
I, personally, would love one of the Nokia phones pictured near the top of the list. As for the lamp inside the book? Well, I am not sure what the market demand will be for that one.
Have a good week. I will work on posting from the road, although usually the format ends up pretty off when I do that. We'll see.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Upcoming at CAMEX
Next week one of the biggest NACS event of the year begins -- CAMEX. There will be plenty there to whet your digital appetite.
There will be a great catalyst session on Friday morning with Michael Wesch. Michael is an Anthropology professor in Kansas. He has become well known in the Internet/YouTube world for his videos on students and technology. Check out some of his videos: The Machine is Us/ing Us, Information R/evolution, and A Vision of Students Today. Along related lines, also check out Academia 2.0 and the "are we relevant" videos.
I will have the digital update session: Fighting Fire With Fire: Understanding Opportunities for College Stores in the New Digital Landscape. The title was set about a year ago and many things have happened since, but it should be a lively session this time. Among discussing some important new developments, we will also be laying out some of the elements and proposals put forth by the Digital Content Strategic Planning Taskforce, which will be discussed by the NACS Board the day before. Some of you have seen earlier drafts of that report, but we have some new action items in response to developments within the past two weeks.
At the same time as my session, the NACS General Business Meeting will take place. The general meeting is expected to run longer to allow for questions and recent developments are sure to engender some discussion.
On Saturday morning Todd Anderson will be giving a presentation on Print-on-demand (POD) entitled Espresso Books: Print-on-demand in the College Store . This should be a great session and one I hope many stores will attend. POD will be a big part of our strategy for stores this year, so here is an opportunity to learn from one of the most innovative stores in North America.
On Saturday afternoon there will be the E-books, Custom Books, and Print-on-demand - Idea Exchange . I am scheduled to be on a panel for health science stores at that time, but I am looking to hear what comes out of the discussion. I will be attempting to sit in for part of the discussion.
Of course there are many other sessions that are covering digital and retail technologies. I plan to make my CAMEX talk a bit different from earlier talks, and also different from the talks for PSG and LSG coming up in April. There always needs to be a bit of overlap, but I will do my best to provide new content -- this time around that should be easy as there are many new things to discuss.
Hope to see many of you at CAMEX!
There will be a great catalyst session on Friday morning with Michael Wesch. Michael is an Anthropology professor in Kansas. He has become well known in the Internet/YouTube world for his videos on students and technology. Check out some of his videos: The Machine is Us/ing Us, Information R/evolution, and A Vision of Students Today. Along related lines, also check out Academia 2.0 and the "are we relevant" videos.
I will have the digital update session: Fighting Fire With Fire: Understanding Opportunities for College Stores in the New Digital Landscape. The title was set about a year ago and many things have happened since, but it should be a lively session this time. Among discussing some important new developments, we will also be laying out some of the elements and proposals put forth by the Digital Content Strategic Planning Taskforce, which will be discussed by the NACS Board the day before. Some of you have seen earlier drafts of that report, but we have some new action items in response to developments within the past two weeks.
At the same time as my session, the NACS General Business Meeting will take place. The general meeting is expected to run longer to allow for questions and recent developments are sure to engender some discussion.
On Saturday morning Todd Anderson will be giving a presentation on Print-on-demand (POD) entitled Espresso Books: Print-on-demand in the College Store . This should be a great session and one I hope many stores will attend. POD will be a big part of our strategy for stores this year, so here is an opportunity to learn from one of the most innovative stores in North America.
On Saturday afternoon there will be the E-books, Custom Books, and Print-on-demand - Idea Exchange . I am scheduled to be on a panel for health science stores at that time, but I am looking to hear what comes out of the discussion. I will be attempting to sit in for part of the discussion.
Of course there are many other sessions that are covering digital and retail technologies. I plan to make my CAMEX talk a bit different from earlier talks, and also different from the talks for PSG and LSG coming up in April. There always needs to be a bit of overlap, but I will do my best to provide new content -- this time around that should be easy as there are many new things to discuss.
Hope to see many of you at CAMEX!
Nearing our "i-Pod" moment?
Are textbooks, publishing, and college stores about to face their "i-Pod moment"? That was part of the discussion last week in a session at the O'Reilly TOC conference. The question, though, is: Is it possible that our "iPod moment" is coming more quickly than we expected? Could it arrive within the year?
Between now and CAMEX we will be sending out an announcement to members about a recent development that has come to our attention. We are still tracking out information and trying to learn more. From what we have confirmed at this stage, however, appears that the digital environment for textbooks is about to become far more competitive. There is a device, that currently lacks a sufficient content inventory, but that may be about to change. Furthermore, the company owning that device is approaching academic institutions directly through the IT branch. We know a bit more than that, but not a whole lot more. Once the announcement goes out, I will post a copy here.
If we are facing our "iPod moment," are we ready? I would like to seriously engage in a discussion on this topic, our opportunities, and our options. I will bring the topic up in my session at CAMEX next Friday at 4pm. I would be interested in having more conversation on this either here through the blog or via other avenues.
Between now and CAMEX we will be sending out an announcement to members about a recent development that has come to our attention. We are still tracking out information and trying to learn more. From what we have confirmed at this stage, however, appears that the digital environment for textbooks is about to become far more competitive. There is a device, that currently lacks a sufficient content inventory, but that may be about to change. Furthermore, the company owning that device is approaching academic institutions directly through the IT branch. We know a bit more than that, but not a whole lot more. Once the announcement goes out, I will post a copy here.
If we are facing our "iPod moment," are we ready? I would like to seriously engage in a discussion on this topic, our opportunities, and our options. I will bring the topic up in my session at CAMEX next Friday at 4pm. I would be interested in having more conversation on this either here through the blog or via other avenues.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
MeebOme!
Okay -- I am trying out a new feature to the blog -- it may stay, it may not. I have added a widget so people can IM me while I am online. It requires that I actively log into MeebOme, so I am seeking out a widget for my desktop as well. Feel free to leave a message while I am offline and I will respond when I next connect.
Thanks-
M
Thanks-
M
Future of textbooks....interesting quote
Here are some excerpts from a recent interview with CJ Rayhill from Safari Online. I think her comments relative to textbooks are interesting and worth discussion. Particularly in light of some new big news that came our way this week (and which I will be posting here shortly -- so stay tuned!) You can find the whole interview with CJ Rayhill on the "Confessions of a Science Librarian" blog.
Excerpts:
Excerpts:
The next 3-5 years will likely be a very revolutionary period for stores as well. This theme was repeated over and over at the TOC conference last week and in other publisher venues I have tapped into lately. Our timeline to prepare is diminishing. Where is all the discussion of this topic within our portion of the industry???Q4. What's the future of the text book? Do you think this model would
apply to other disciplines as well? Physics, marketing, philosophy?The future of the textbook market is clearly shifting. You have products like
SafariU, iChapters, and CourseSmart beginning to emerge to solve a difficult
issue -- the high cost of textbooks. In addition, most higher-education courses
involve exposure to content from multiple sources which makes the cost of
purchasing all of the required and recommended reading for students out of
reach. So what happens is that students end up not even purchasing required content which must diminish the value of their educational experience. I'm not sure which model will emerge as the clear leader in this space...
Q5. What do you see as Safari's biggest competition, other ebook publishers or free stuff on the net?
Both! Our biggest partners (Google, Amazon, etc.) can potentially be our biggest competitors. And the balancing act is not getting any easier. Especially for technical reference-type books, how much do you give away for free on Google Book Search before it eats into your revenue stream possibilities? Does the exposure help or hurt sales? I think free content is great -- but I also think that there is a place for being able to search across and access good, vetted content from trusted sources. The next 3-5 years is going to be one of the most revolutionary periods for publishers in my opinion, especially in our space.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
New concept store has a focus on digital
Here's an interesting story on Border's new future of the bookstore that appeared in yesterday's USA Today. The concept store is based heavily on digital. Read the full story at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2008-02-13-borders-downloads_N.htm
The first concept store opens today - the list of other concept stores opening this year is towards the bottom of this piece. Perhaps we can arrange a trip to check it out and see what we can replicate? Perhaps a member or two could check it out for us and give us a report back? Maybe someone from this initiative would be willing to talk to our group at Innovate? What would it take for us to help create such a concept store in the college store industry? All just thoughts.
It is a very interesting read though - and seems to be on the right track. I think what is interesting about some of their concepts is that we have been talking about some of these things - from POD, to becoming that hub for knowledge, entertainment and digital downloading. These are all ideas we (and others) have bounced around in the past couple years, but they have gone ahead and implemented them. Several of these ideas appear in the proposed report from the digital content taskforce which is a reassuring sign that perhaps we are moving in the right direction. At least we have an opportunity to learn from the Border's experience before trying any of these things on our own.
If you happen to see follow-up stories on this that I miss, I would be interested in seeing them. I would also be interested in hearing your ideas about what stores or NACS could do to increase experiementation. If we were to create a digital concept store, what would it look like? Do you think Border's idea is a move in the right direction?
BORDERS' CONCEPT STORES
Here are the 13 other concept stores Borders plans this year:
California: Alameda (San Francisco area) Alameda Towne Center Mira Loma (Los Angeles) Eastvale Gateway Mall National City (San Diego area) Westfield Shoppingtown Plaza Bonita
Colorado: Park Meadows (Denver) Park Meadows Mall
Connecticut: Southbury Southbury Plaza
Florida: Panama City Beach Pier Park
Indiana: Noblesville (Indianapolis area) Hamilton Town Center
Louisiana: Baton Rouge Mall of Louisiana New Orleans free-standing store in the Garden district
Massachusetts: Wareham (Boston area) Wareham Crossing
Nevada: Las Vegas Las Vegas Town Square
Texas: Allen (Dallas area) Watters Creek at Montgomery Farms
Washington: Tukwila (Seattle area) Westfield Southcenter Mall
Source: Borders, as reported in USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2008-02-13-borders-downloads_N.htm
The first concept store opens today - the list of other concept stores opening this year is towards the bottom of this piece. Perhaps we can arrange a trip to check it out and see what we can replicate? Perhaps a member or two could check it out for us and give us a report back? Maybe someone from this initiative would be willing to talk to our group at Innovate? What would it take for us to help create such a concept store in the college store industry? All just thoughts.
It is a very interesting read though - and seems to be on the right track. I think what is interesting about some of their concepts is that we have been talking about some of these things - from POD, to becoming that hub for knowledge, entertainment and digital downloading. These are all ideas we (and others) have bounced around in the past couple years, but they have gone ahead and implemented them. Several of these ideas appear in the proposed report from the digital content taskforce which is a reassuring sign that perhaps we are moving in the right direction. At least we have an opportunity to learn from the Border's experience before trying any of these things on our own.
If you happen to see follow-up stories on this that I miss, I would be interested in seeing them. I would also be interested in hearing your ideas about what stores or NACS could do to increase experiementation. If we were to create a digital concept store, what would it look like? Do you think Border's idea is a move in the right direction?
BORDERS' CONCEPT STORES
Here are the 13 other concept stores Borders plans this year:
California: Alameda (San Francisco area) Alameda Towne Center Mira Loma (Los Angeles) Eastvale Gateway Mall National City (San Diego area) Westfield Shoppingtown Plaza Bonita
Colorado: Park Meadows (Denver) Park Meadows Mall
Connecticut: Southbury Southbury Plaza
Florida: Panama City Beach Pier Park
Indiana: Noblesville (Indianapolis area) Hamilton Town Center
Louisiana: Baton Rouge Mall of Louisiana New Orleans free-standing store in the Garden district
Massachusetts: Wareham (Boston area) Wareham Crossing
Nevada: Las Vegas Las Vegas Town Square
Texas: Allen (Dallas area) Watters Creek at Montgomery Farms
Washington: Tukwila (Seattle area) Westfield Southcenter Mall
Source: Borders, as reported in USA Today
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Twittering from the road...
Hi folks.
Yesterday and today I am at the OReilly Tools of Change (TOC) conference. I had planned to blog parts of the conference, but yesterday's Blackberry outage put some end to that. See, even tech guys can get stymied by tech now and again.
Yesterday's TOC sessions were great. Many stores could have benefitted from some of the sessions. Over the next week I will post a number of my notes and observations from the conference. Right now I have about 30 pages of notes and a number of ideas and thoughts to include in upcoming presentations.
Some quick-hit themes to perk your interest: the importance of experimentation keeps coming up, as does varying incarnations of Web 2.0 and collaboration. The concept of community and how that figures into the equation has raised several ideas and implications for college stores. There was a great session on e-textbooks yesterday that will be repeated today due to popular and high demand -- something that stores should take away as an important indicator of what is to come. There are other themes and topics too-- but that will have to wait until a future posting. I will verify that this "posting from the road" arrived correctly and then perhaps begin a new posting from the train home tonight. I have lots of good content to post over the next few days.
Have you seen anything interesting lately? Any news stories you would like me to discuss or post more on here? I have another posting coming on clickers suggested by a reader. More to follow-
Happy blogging--
M
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
2008 Horizon Report
The Horizon 2008 Report is now available for downloading and viewing. Here is the main report description:
"The main sections of the report describe six emerging technologies or practices that will likely enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. Also highlighted are a set of challenges and trends that will influence our choices in the same time frames...The two technologies placed on the first adoption horizon in this edition, grassroots video and collaboration webs, are already in use on many campuses. Examples of these are not difficult to find. Applications of mobile broadband and data mashups, both on the mid-term horizon, are evident in organizations at the leading edge of technology adoption, and are beginning to appear at many institutions. Educational uses of the two topics on
the far-term horizon, collective intelligence and social operating systems, are understandably rarer; however, there are examples in the worlds of commerce, industry and entertainment that hint at coming use in academia within four to five years."
They have some interesting new features this year. Including a wiki to discuss the project and the use of tagging standards, so that you can add examples of your own using del.icio.us. They also have some other things planned for April/May. In addition to analyzing the MetaTrends of the last 5 years, this report outlines the major emerging technologies for college level education in the next five years. This year's list includes:
1 year or less
Grassroots Video
Collaboration Webs
2-3 years
Mobile Broadband
Data Mashups
4-5 years
Collective Intelligence
Social Operating Systems
The main report is available at: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf
The wiki is available at: http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page
The del.icio.us tags are available at:
Grassroots Video http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+video
Collaboration Webs http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+virtualcollab
Mobile Broadband http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+mobile
Data Mashups http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+mashups
Collective Intelligence http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+collectiveintelligence
Social Operating Systems http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+socialos
A good number of our members read and commented on this report last year. Some of the trends are interesting and perhaps something our stores can take advantage of...
"The main sections of the report describe six emerging technologies or practices that will likely enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. Also highlighted are a set of challenges and trends that will influence our choices in the same time frames...The two technologies placed on the first adoption horizon in this edition, grassroots video and collaboration webs, are already in use on many campuses. Examples of these are not difficult to find. Applications of mobile broadband and data mashups, both on the mid-term horizon, are evident in organizations at the leading edge of technology adoption, and are beginning to appear at many institutions. Educational uses of the two topics on
the far-term horizon, collective intelligence and social operating systems, are understandably rarer; however, there are examples in the worlds of commerce, industry and entertainment that hint at coming use in academia within four to five years."
They have some interesting new features this year. Including a wiki to discuss the project and the use of tagging standards, so that you can add examples of your own using del.icio.us. They also have some other things planned for April/May. In addition to analyzing the MetaTrends of the last 5 years, this report outlines the major emerging technologies for college level education in the next five years. This year's list includes:
1 year or less
Grassroots Video
Collaboration Webs
2-3 years
Mobile Broadband
Data Mashups
4-5 years
Collective Intelligence
Social Operating Systems
The main report is available at: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf
The wiki is available at: http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page
The del.icio.us tags are available at:
Grassroots Video http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+video
Collaboration Webs http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+virtualcollab
Mobile Broadband http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+mobile
Data Mashups http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+mashups
Collective Intelligence http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+collectiveintelligence
Social Operating Systems http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+socialos
A good number of our members read and commented on this report last year. Some of the trends are interesting and perhaps something our stores can take advantage of...
Monday, January 28, 2008
The end of reading -- according to Mr. Jobs
Steve Jobs recently commented that people do not read anymore, so any e-reader product is doomed to fail -- since none of us read. That's bad news for the textbook business, where most of what we sell is reading material.
There is an interesting editorial/response to Mr. Job's recent statements in Ad Age this week. As a rebuttal, it is worth a quick read. I think the rebuttal makes some worthwhile points to consider -- how the Kindle has sparked peoples' interest (at least at a novelty level), and even more so in the points related to "what is reading?", and that the point is about getting text -- whether from magazines, newspapers, books, or blogs anywhere and on demand. Anywhere and on demand -- relevant words for our industry in the year(s) ahead. What do those terms mean to your store?
Something to think about as you read the Ad Age article at:
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=123332
There is an interesting editorial/response to Mr. Job's recent statements in Ad Age this week. As a rebuttal, it is worth a quick read. I think the rebuttal makes some worthwhile points to consider -- how the Kindle has sparked peoples' interest (at least at a novelty level), and even more so in the points related to "what is reading?", and that the point is about getting text -- whether from magazines, newspapers, books, or blogs anywhere and on demand. Anywhere and on demand -- relevant words for our industry in the year(s) ahead. What do those terms mean to your store?
Something to think about as you read the Ad Age article at:
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=123332
Thursday, January 24, 2008
IBM -- predictions of the future...
There is an interesting piece today on some of IBM's top predictions for emerging technologies. Real or science fiction? You decide. One of the interesting items on the list is #4: Our cell phones will be our wallet, ticket broker, concierge, bank, shopping buddy and more. We are already seeing some of this in the college store environment. Or consider the ability to take your iPhone into Starbucks, hear a song you like and have the device be able to tell what is playing and allow you to immediately purchase and download the tune while you wait for your latte to be served up. What will these advances in mobile commerce mean for college stores and our customers?
For the full article on IBM's predictions, see: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35049/118/
For the full article on IBM's predictions, see: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35049/118/
A new e-reader -- gone mobile and flexible
Okay, here is a device I want. The Readius. Not only does it bring in the new highly flexible organic display technology -- but does so in a mobile phone! It is described as a merge of the Kindle or Sony reader and a mobile phone.
This is probably the first commercially available application of organic displays for e-readers, certainly in combination with mobile phone technology. It is being produced by Polymer Vision -- a Dutch company that spun off from Phillips.
You can see a video presentation of the technology via YouTube at the following location:
Another blog of interest
Perhaps it is bad form to recommend another blog for readers, but here is one full of articles and entries that would be of interest to our members. The blog author, Martyn Daniels, is one of the lead authors for the "Brave New World" report published by the Bookseller's Association of the UK and Ireland. In the past month there have been several interesting postings on print on demand and the concept of chunking. For readers looking for more regular or additional postings or sources of information, check out Martyn's blog at:
http://bookseller-association.blogspot.com/
But please come back again! As readership grows (and my travel schedule has breaks) I will add more entries. This could be a good forum for us to discuss digital content issues within the college store environment.
http://bookseller-association.blogspot.com/
But please come back again! As readership grows (and my travel schedule has breaks) I will add more entries. This could be a good forum for us to discuss digital content issues within the college store environment.
The Future of DRM
DRM -- that is Digital Rights Management for the lay person. DRM captures the set of technologies and business models for protecting intellectual property and that controls the uses and distribution of digital content.
There is an interesting article from the Wharton Business School today on the future of DRM from a business model perspective. It is an interesting read, along with some of the commentary offered by readers. The Wharton experts conclude that DRM is not going away, despite recent developments in the music industry. Instead, the DRM components will likely just become less intrusive. This is good or interesting news for those of us interested in digital course materials, where students have reported that current DRM approaches represent an obstacle to adoption.
The article can be found at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1882
There is an interesting article from the Wharton Business School today on the future of DRM from a business model perspective. It is an interesting read, along with some of the commentary offered by readers. The Wharton experts conclude that DRM is not going away, despite recent developments in the music industry. Instead, the DRM components will likely just become less intrusive. This is good or interesting news for those of us interested in digital course materials, where students have reported that current DRM approaches represent an obstacle to adoption.
The article can be found at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1882
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Longer Life batteries
There was an interesting story today about a revolutionary breakthrough in battery life for mobile devices -- from laptops to ipods. Stanford University researchers found a way to increase battery life by about 10 times! That could make devices even more portable and further support the move to mobile technologies for a wider range of applications.
Check out the full story at: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6226196.html
Check out the full story at: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6226196.html
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Embracing the Digital Age
Some of you who know me will recall last November when I suggested reading the "Brave New World" report produced by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland. The earlier report gave a good overview of much of the digital industry, key trends, some action items for stores and associations, as well as other information. I suggested it as "required reading" at the time, particularly a subset of the chapters. That report is still available by clicking the link under the "Title Waves" section on this blog.
About two weeks ago the Booksellers Association released a follow-up report from their taskforce on the topic. The new report is entitled " Embracing the Digital Age: An Opportunity for Booksellers and the Book Trade". I have placed a link to this report in the "Title Wave" section of this blog as well.
This new report is very much worth your time to read if you are a bookseller today. It is a much shorter and strategic-action oriented report. There are notable overlaps with some of the recommendations and directions of our own digital content strategic planning taskforce. Of the ten key proposals outlined in the executive summary, at least 8 directly connect with some of our discussions in various areas of NACS. The report is effectively and clearly written and well worth your time to peruse.
The aspect of the report I found most interesting is the concept of developing an "enhanced trade infrastructure" to support bookstores in the digital space. We have other initiatives designed to support that concept as well, such as a new project with Caravan being supported by the NACS Foundation -- but more on that in a subsequent posting. The new report identifies ten proposals for improving the trade infrastructure among stores for digital. To quote the report briefly, these proposals are:
1. Websites. A bookshop must have an integrated on-line presence with the capacity for financial transactions, or it is not realising its full capability in selling books. These websites have two prime functions: as trading systems allowing customers to buy online and as community notice-boards.
2. Customer-facing information service. A new information service should be developed to allow booksellers to mix information from the professional bibliographic databases with elements from publishers' marketing sources to present titles on their websites in a more appropriate way to customers, and where the customer does not leave the bookseller's website.
3. The bookshop as the hub of the local community. The use of digital techniques will raise the profile of the bookshop as the essential information centre in the local community.
4. A title alert system for account customers. A title recommendation system should be developed, to alert customers to new or backlist titles recommended by the bookseller that reflects the customer's buying interests and allows them to browse the title online before buying.
5. A grid system for categorising bookshops. The trade must develop a categorisation system for booksellers across the country to allow the efficient targeting of digital marketing messages and information.
6. Enabling booksellers to sell digital content. Faced with a proliferation of digital content, many consumers will need advice and guidance from a source they know and trust. This will provide an opportunity for booksellers to extend their relationship with their customers in the digital world.
7. Market research. There should be a programme of research so that the changing patterns of consumer behaviour can be understood and monitored.
8. Getting the digitisation message accepted. The positive message about the digital opportunity must be sold to the book trade via regular newsletters e-mailed to booksellers and publishers to keep them up to date with developments; in addition, there should be trade press briefings, a series of trade forums, and a major conference early in 2008 to debate and agree the proposals in the report.
9. Training. Booksellers will need to develop their specialist skills (e.g. digital marketing; advising customers on digital content).
10. Experimentation. The trade must be prepared to undergo a significant period of experimentation.
To learn more about each of the proposals, please check out the report using the link provided under the "title wave" section of this blog.
We plan to reach out to the BA of UK/IRE early this year to see how we might collaborate on achieving some of these proposals. I am interesed in hearing from potential partners interested in working with us on some of these initiatives -- or from stores who have ideas on how we might help accomplish some of these goals.
About two weeks ago the Booksellers Association released a follow-up report from their taskforce on the topic. The new report is entitled " Embracing the Digital Age: An Opportunity for Booksellers and the Book Trade". I have placed a link to this report in the "Title Wave" section of this blog as well.
This new report is very much worth your time to read if you are a bookseller today. It is a much shorter and strategic-action oriented report. There are notable overlaps with some of the recommendations and directions of our own digital content strategic planning taskforce. Of the ten key proposals outlined in the executive summary, at least 8 directly connect with some of our discussions in various areas of NACS. The report is effectively and clearly written and well worth your time to peruse.
The aspect of the report I found most interesting is the concept of developing an "enhanced trade infrastructure" to support bookstores in the digital space. We have other initiatives designed to support that concept as well, such as a new project with Caravan being supported by the NACS Foundation -- but more on that in a subsequent posting. The new report identifies ten proposals for improving the trade infrastructure among stores for digital. To quote the report briefly, these proposals are:
1. Websites. A bookshop must have an integrated on-line presence with the capacity for financial transactions, or it is not realising its full capability in selling books. These websites have two prime functions: as trading systems allowing customers to buy online and as community notice-boards.
2. Customer-facing information service. A new information service should be developed to allow booksellers to mix information from the professional bibliographic databases with elements from publishers' marketing sources to present titles on their websites in a more appropriate way to customers, and where the customer does not leave the bookseller's website.
3. The bookshop as the hub of the local community. The use of digital techniques will raise the profile of the bookshop as the essential information centre in the local community.
4. A title alert system for account customers. A title recommendation system should be developed, to alert customers to new or backlist titles recommended by the bookseller that reflects the customer's buying interests and allows them to browse the title online before buying.
5. A grid system for categorising bookshops. The trade must develop a categorisation system for booksellers across the country to allow the efficient targeting of digital marketing messages and information.
6. Enabling booksellers to sell digital content. Faced with a proliferation of digital content, many consumers will need advice and guidance from a source they know and trust. This will provide an opportunity for booksellers to extend their relationship with their customers in the digital world.
7. Market research. There should be a programme of research so that the changing patterns of consumer behaviour can be understood and monitored.
8. Getting the digitisation message accepted. The positive message about the digital opportunity must be sold to the book trade via regular newsletters e-mailed to booksellers and publishers to keep them up to date with developments; in addition, there should be trade press briefings, a series of trade forums, and a major conference early in 2008 to debate and agree the proposals in the report.
9. Training. Booksellers will need to develop their specialist skills (e.g. digital marketing; advising customers on digital content).
10. Experimentation. The trade must be prepared to undergo a significant period of experimentation.
To learn more about each of the proposals, please check out the report using the link provided under the "title wave" section of this blog.
We plan to reach out to the BA of UK/IRE early this year to see how we might collaborate on achieving some of these proposals. I am interesed in hearing from potential partners interested in working with us on some of these initiatives -- or from stores who have ideas on how we might help accomplish some of these goals.
Welcome to 2008!
Hi Everyone,
Sorry for a silent December. Things continue to be very busy in the digital space. I was glad to see the last article on Blackboard engendered the start of discussion. It looks like someone is really out there and sometimes reading what's on this blog!
Well, as I mentioned, there are many interesting developments over the past month. The Kindle, of course was big news. According to one news report, the initial supply sold out in 5 days, leaving Amazon with a 7 day back-order period while they rushed to get more devices. It will be interesting to see what happens with the device this year -- and its impact on e-book sales.
I will be traveling for the next 4-5 days, but I have several posts saved up for this forum. If you subscribe to the blog, you should receive an e-mail when new posts are entered. One of the topics to report on are the new report from the UK-Ireland Booksellers Association. This is a must-read report for anyone interested in how traditional stores will prepare for a future with more digital product. Another upcoming post will relate to the new project between NACS and Caravan. Of course, developments with CourseSmart in the last two months will also be of interest. We have several use cases that stores contributed, which I will post here for feedback (and additional submissions). Finally, NACS Taskforce on digital content is making progress. That work is due to our Board at the end of February -- but I will provide a brief glimpse into the taskforce work and direction here soon.
All this and more is coming soon. I will endeavor to become more regular in my blogging activity in the New Year. I will not claim that to be my New Year's resolution -- as I would not want to jinx the efforts too early. I would love some assistance though -- if someone would like to work with me on this blog, or has a story or thought to contribute, please drop me a note or post to this message.
Best wishes to all for a very happy 2008!
-M
Sorry for a silent December. Things continue to be very busy in the digital space. I was glad to see the last article on Blackboard engendered the start of discussion. It looks like someone is really out there and sometimes reading what's on this blog!
Well, as I mentioned, there are many interesting developments over the past month. The Kindle, of course was big news. According to one news report, the initial supply sold out in 5 days, leaving Amazon with a 7 day back-order period while they rushed to get more devices. It will be interesting to see what happens with the device this year -- and its impact on e-book sales.
I will be traveling for the next 4-5 days, but I have several posts saved up for this forum. If you subscribe to the blog, you should receive an e-mail when new posts are entered. One of the topics to report on are the new report from the UK-Ireland Booksellers Association. This is a must-read report for anyone interested in how traditional stores will prepare for a future with more digital product. Another upcoming post will relate to the new project between NACS and Caravan. Of course, developments with CourseSmart in the last two months will also be of interest. We have several use cases that stores contributed, which I will post here for feedback (and additional submissions). Finally, NACS Taskforce on digital content is making progress. That work is due to our Board at the end of February -- but I will provide a brief glimpse into the taskforce work and direction here soon.
All this and more is coming soon. I will endeavor to become more regular in my blogging activity in the New Year. I will not claim that to be my New Year's resolution -- as I would not want to jinx the efforts too early. I would love some assistance though -- if someone would like to work with me on this blog, or has a story or thought to contribute, please drop me a note or post to this message.
Best wishes to all for a very happy 2008!
-M
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Digital Textbooks through BlackBoard
Well, we have long expected it (or suspected it), but I have confirmation - Blackboard is selling digital textbooks direct to students. I am co-teaching an executive/weekend MBA course next semester for the University at Albany. I had to register for my blackboard account this afternoon so that I could start setting up the course over the next few weekends. One of the line items to complete as you are completing the registration form is "set up your course e-pack." If you click the help or "what is this" option, it takes you to Blackboard's Digital Content FAQ page (permanent link not available).
I searched and was able to find one textbook option I was considering for sale directly through Blackboard/WebCT. The version includes the full text electronically, plus a number of interactive tools, quizzes and other content to go with the electronic text. The site does note that if I contact my publisher rep I can get pricing for the printed textbook and/or access code bundles that can be sold through the college bookstore. It would be interesting to know how this price compares to what students would pay for the text through the college store. Is the price reasonable to students?
On the site above it says that students can purchase access codes online from blackboard/webCT, in a bundled package with the textbook, or in the campus bookstore. By the latter, I assume they mean the "hang-tag" type purchase model for publisher content (like the MBS or Nebraska systems) since to my knowledge, Blackboard has not made any arrangements to sell access codes directly through stores, yes?
Interestingly, the system does allow students to get a temporary 15-day access to an e-Pack. It does not indicate what the limitations of that access might be (i.e., with 15 days, I could print out or screen scrape the whole book for "free").
Looking at the offering, I don't think this is anything really all that new, but it would be interesting to know how many faculty are choosing the e-pack option and how many students are opting to buy the digital through Blackboard rather than through the store. Keeping in mind that convenience is the #1 determinant of which technologies students say they will use for educational purposes. As the inventory of digital content textbooks grows, we may see more faculty and students willing to adopt the digital option, or the print+digital option.
College stores need to be thinking about how or what we would bring to the table to interest Blackboard in talking with us. There is also the question of what we want to get out of that conversation at the national level. Our agenda is already full for the Digital Content Taskforce meeting this Friday, but perhaps I can find a way to bring this up. Any thoughts?
I searched and was able to find one textbook option I was considering for sale directly through Blackboard/WebCT. The version includes the full text electronically, plus a number of interactive tools, quizzes and other content to go with the electronic text. The site does note that if I contact my publisher rep I can get pricing for the printed textbook and/or access code bundles that can be sold through the college bookstore. It would be interesting to know how this price compares to what students would pay for the text through the college store. Is the price reasonable to students?
On the site above it says that students can purchase access codes online from blackboard/webCT, in a bundled package with the textbook, or in the campus bookstore. By the latter, I assume they mean the "hang-tag" type purchase model for publisher content (like the MBS or Nebraska systems) since to my knowledge, Blackboard has not made any arrangements to sell access codes directly through stores, yes?
Interestingly, the system does allow students to get a temporary 15-day access to an e-Pack. It does not indicate what the limitations of that access might be (i.e., with 15 days, I could print out or screen scrape the whole book for "free").
Looking at the offering, I don't think this is anything really all that new, but it would be interesting to know how many faculty are choosing the e-pack option and how many students are opting to buy the digital through Blackboard rather than through the store. Keeping in mind that convenience is the #1 determinant of which technologies students say they will use for educational purposes. As the inventory of digital content textbooks grows, we may see more faculty and students willing to adopt the digital option, or the print+digital option.
College stores need to be thinking about how or what we would bring to the table to interest Blackboard in talking with us. There is also the question of what we want to get out of that conversation at the national level. Our agenda is already full for the Digital Content Taskforce meeting this Friday, but perhaps I can find a way to bring this up. Any thoughts?
Monday, November 26, 2007
End of music DRM?
There's an interesting story on Rafat Ali's blog recently about how UK retailers are demanding the end of DRM on music. Here's the clip, along with a link to the original blogpost which has links to some other interesting related stories:
UK Music Retailers To Labels: ‘Drop DRM By Christmas’
By Robert Andrews - Tue 20 Nov 2007 10:22 AM PST
The writing’s on the wall for music DRM - now even the folk who sell music (the UK’s Entertainment Retailers Association) are calling on the industry to drop the protection.
Director-general Kim Bayley said labels have been “quick to complain” that the holy grail of digital offsetting physical sales has not yet been met. But clumsy protection ”might have added to the slow take-up of legal digital services”, she told FT.com, observing “just 150 million tracks” have been sold digitally in the UK in the last three years. “Sadly, that amounts to an average of less than one £0.79 ($1.61) per download per head of population per year. At the moment, [DRM] just puts consumers off.”
The numbers might be skewed (not every member of the population was an analog music customer). But Bayley isn’t dawdling - the ERA, which represents nearly 200 retailers like HMV (LSE: HMV) and WH Smith, wants the industry to drop DRM before Christmas, so customers can add free and open tracks to the iPods they get under the tree this year.
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-uk-music-retailers-to-labels-drop-drm-by-christmas/
UK Music Retailers To Labels: ‘Drop DRM By Christmas’
By Robert Andrews - Tue 20 Nov 2007 10:22 AM PST
The writing’s on the wall for music DRM - now even the folk who sell music (the UK’s Entertainment Retailers Association) are calling on the industry to drop the protection.
Director-general Kim Bayley said labels have been “quick to complain” that the holy grail of digital offsetting physical sales has not yet been met. But clumsy protection ”might have added to the slow take-up of legal digital services”, she told FT.com, observing “just 150 million tracks” have been sold digitally in the UK in the last three years. “Sadly, that amounts to an average of less than one £0.79 ($1.61) per download per head of population per year. At the moment, [DRM] just puts consumers off.”
The numbers might be skewed (not every member of the population was an analog music customer). But Bayley isn’t dawdling - the ERA, which represents nearly 200 retailers like HMV (LSE: HMV) and WH Smith, wants the industry to drop DRM before Christmas, so customers can add free and open tracks to the iPods they get under the tree this year.
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-uk-music-retailers-to-labels-drop-drm-by-christmas/
More on Kindle...
For some interesting stories and blog links on Kindle, check out the stories on Gizmodo. The link you want is:
http://gizmodo.com/search/kindle
Happy e-reading!
-M
http://gizmodo.com/search/kindle
Happy e-reading!
-M
Amazon Kindle sells out in less than 5 days!
The long awaited Amazon e-reader went on sale last week on Nov 19th. 5 days later all inventory was completely sold out. I read many of the reviews of the device on the Amazon site, but many of those doing the reviewing clearly had not seen the device -- they were complaining about features not being there that were. Thus we learn one of the challenges with wiki-like social systems -- not everyone contributing content is qualified to do so. Back to the main line of discussion though -- the Amazon Kindle sold out in just 5 days and is not due to be back in stock until Dec 3 -- about 7 days from now. Guess that makes the Kindle the "must have" device of the season.
Among the plusses of the kindle -- many reviews have noted that it is very easy to use. This may mean that we are getting close to a viable e-reader. The EVDO network (wireless-like networking capability) is a big plus, as is the ability to easily expand memory with chips. It's also possible to subscribe to major newspapers -- Times, Washington Post, etc. -- which is a nice feature.
Negative views of the kindle were most often linked to price -- but $400 seems comparable to me, and includes the cost of the EVDO network. There have been complaints about the charges for "free content" dowloading -- used to defray the network transmission costs. However, my understanding is that these can be bypassed by connecting the device to a laptop (I know, I know, kind of defeats the purpose). People have also complained about the fees to access blogs ($2/mo) and newspapers ($15/mo). We will see how this plays out. Technology costs are always dropping, so the costs may go down in time. In a first offering of a product like this you would probably expect prices to be a bit high at first .
Even with the high price, the device sold out in five days -- clearly exceeding Amazon's expectations for sales of the device. Perhaps the day of the e-reader and e-reading has arrived? Or maybe it will take the next device to enter the market. Rumor has it Apple is going to release something in 2008. Who knows...
-M
Among the plusses of the kindle -- many reviews have noted that it is very easy to use. This may mean that we are getting close to a viable e-reader. The EVDO network (wireless-like networking capability) is a big plus, as is the ability to easily expand memory with chips. It's also possible to subscribe to major newspapers -- Times, Washington Post, etc. -- which is a nice feature.
Negative views of the kindle were most often linked to price -- but $400 seems comparable to me, and includes the cost of the EVDO network. There have been complaints about the charges for "free content" dowloading -- used to defray the network transmission costs. However, my understanding is that these can be bypassed by connecting the device to a laptop (I know, I know, kind of defeats the purpose). People have also complained about the fees to access blogs ($2/mo) and newspapers ($15/mo). We will see how this plays out. Technology costs are always dropping, so the costs may go down in time. In a first offering of a product like this you would probably expect prices to be a bit high at first .
Even with the high price, the device sold out in five days -- clearly exceeding Amazon's expectations for sales of the device. Perhaps the day of the e-reader and e-reading has arrived? Or maybe it will take the next device to enter the market. Rumor has it Apple is going to release something in 2008. Who knows...
-M
Back from Break
Hi folks,
Sorry for the long blog silence. The past month has been hectic. I did quite a bit of traveling around the continent giving talks, attending meetings, and visiting stores.
A quick nod to the Canadians and sorry I could not make it to CSC in person. My flight was cancelled almost 12 hours before I took off. There was great thinking on the feet though -- we managed to pull off the talk by pulling together the phone and the hotel PA system. That's the first time I have given a conference presentation remotely. I, back at home, was able to give the talk while still in my PJ's -- another new first for me. Next year I hope to make it to CSC in person.
The CACS meeting was also enjoyable. There was an engaged audience at the session, and the post-presentation buzz was good. I hope those who attended my session found it useful and thought-provoking.
As for me, I'm back home -- stuffed from turkey on the holiday, and with a stuffy nose from a bad cold. My apologies in advance for all of those I will be visiting in the next two weeks, as I am scheduled to be traveling 11 off the next 16 days.
-M
Sorry for the long blog silence. The past month has been hectic. I did quite a bit of traveling around the continent giving talks, attending meetings, and visiting stores.
A quick nod to the Canadians and sorry I could not make it to CSC in person. My flight was cancelled almost 12 hours before I took off. There was great thinking on the feet though -- we managed to pull off the talk by pulling together the phone and the hotel PA system. That's the first time I have given a conference presentation remotely. I, back at home, was able to give the talk while still in my PJ's -- another new first for me. Next year I hope to make it to CSC in person.
The CACS meeting was also enjoyable. There was an engaged audience at the session, and the post-presentation buzz was good. I hope those who attended my session found it useful and thought-provoking.
As for me, I'm back home -- stuffed from turkey on the holiday, and with a stuffy nose from a bad cold. My apologies in advance for all of those I will be visiting in the next two weeks, as I am scheduled to be traveling 11 off the next 16 days.
-M
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Finally, a fun post...
Ok, today I am posting a host of new messages. Travel does that. I will be traveling for the next 12 days, so you might see me somewhere about. However, to wet your digital appetite -- and just have some fun -- check out the following blog:
It's called, "Being Five" and is quite humorous.
http://www.beingfive.blogspot.com/
Check out the postings on digital natives vs immigrants, and the one on his dad's record collection.
Enjoy!
It's called, "Being Five" and is quite humorous.
http://www.beingfive.blogspot.com/
Check out the postings on digital natives vs immigrants, and the one on his dad's record collection.
Enjoy!
DCSP Taskforce -- initial discussions...
Following our first couple conference calls, some topics are already emerging as key areas for further discussion. Here are some of the initial themes from those discussions, in no particular order. I would be happy to discuss any of these in more depth in later postings, or one-on-one. Feel free to post your comments, reactions and suggestions in this blog. Final caveat -- this list is not yet complete, just a reflection of some of the themes that arose in the taskforce's initial discussions.
- Importance of strategic partnerships for the future; creating messaging for those partners and getting into more direct discussion.
- Drill into, explore, and better define conditions required for stores to participate in appropriate business models
- Importance of building awareness and action; creating a greater sense of industry need reflective of reality
- Need for new skills and related education
- Need for scalable technology and addressing current technology shortcomings
Of course, each of these points had many sub-themes and recommendations. But what thoughts do you have to expand upon this list -- either on specific points or for new points?
Digital Content Strategic Planning Taskforce
NACS recently formed a strategic planning taskforce in the area of digital content.
The initial charges for this task force are centered on the question of how NACS can best assist stores in positioning themselves for an increasingly complex and competitive digital environment. These include:
1. Develop a position statement for NACS role in digital content services to members.
2. Develop a high priority list of areas or objectives (not specific tasks) that NACS should concentrate on over the next 6-18 months (related to digital content delivery)
3. Identify success metrics for 12-18 months out - Delineating between "stretch" targets and expected achievements.
The desired outcomes from this task force include the following objectives or deliverables:
1. Consensus around industry priorities for positioning NACS and its members relative to digital content sales and services;
2. A list of priority areas or objectives for the NACS board to consider and discuss. The task force may be asked to further identify the resource requirements necessary to pursue one or more of the recommended objectives.
We are interested in getting more input into this taskforce, which consists of a powerhouse of talent from among the stores and some external perspectives. Please leave comments with your thoughts or suggestions. In the months ahead, I will post additional items and questions out of the taskforce allowing this to be a forum for disussion beyond the taskforce members.
The initial charges for this task force are centered on the question of how NACS can best assist stores in positioning themselves for an increasingly complex and competitive digital environment. These include:
1. Develop a position statement for NACS role in digital content services to members.
2. Develop a high priority list of areas or objectives (not specific tasks) that NACS should concentrate on over the next 6-18 months (related to digital content delivery)
3. Identify success metrics for 12-18 months out - Delineating between "stretch" targets and expected achievements.
The desired outcomes from this task force include the following objectives or deliverables:
1. Consensus around industry priorities for positioning NACS and its members relative to digital content sales and services;
2. A list of priority areas or objectives for the NACS board to consider and discuss. The task force may be asked to further identify the resource requirements necessary to pursue one or more of the recommended objectives.
We are interested in getting more input into this taskforce, which consists of a powerhouse of talent from among the stores and some external perspectives. Please leave comments with your thoughts or suggestions. In the months ahead, I will post additional items and questions out of the taskforce allowing this to be a forum for disussion beyond the taskforce members.
Response to a Post...
In a recent comment to this blog Anonymous said...
This is not related to your current post, but just a question for you....I recently read in Entertainment Weekly (yes!) that Madonna (and other prominent musicians) are moving away from the "big name" record labels and going with start-ups, direct to consumers (via the web), or otherwise giving their music away. The article suggested that these moves were to promote fan loyalty and generate more listeners. And since the real money for the artists is in licensing, merchandise, touring, etc.--there's no problem for them.My question is this: "How do you think this growing trend is likely to impact the already shifting concepts (perceptions?) of copyright, ownership, "right to", and "on the web is free" that our customers bring to the table?
A very interesting question, Anonymous. By coincidence this dicussion also came up in one of our recent digital content strategic planning taskforce conference calls. For a long time many industries in the US have been moving toward consolidation. However, here is an example of how technology facilitates the startup, the entrepreneur -- by providing outlets for stars, like Madonna and Radiohead, to move more easily to other outlets for their content distribution. The music industry is still progressing through a dramatic evolution. What will be interesting is how this plays out in the textbook and other print content markets. Will faculty also decide to end-run the traditional channel (publishers) to provide content to students at lower cost? Models like Connexions could facilitate that movement -- providing mechanisms of peer review, use count, and other social networking review elements that could make publishing in such outlets more valuable than what traditional publishers currently provide.
More directly to the point of your question -- what are the implications for copyright and IP? I am not sure. To my knowledge, the jury is still somewhat out on the repurposing of content (e.g., mash-ups). There are also initiatives to revise copyright and provide greater flexibility in academic markets -- but if the content is primarily produced for the academic market (i.e., textbooks) then the financial implications for content producers (a fair use criterion) could be significant. That would favor, in my opinion, restricting an overly radical reinterpretation of copyright law with textbook or course material content.
As with most other industries, the concept of value will likely continue to move away from the product and more toward services and value-added elements that make the product of greater value to the consumer. Revenue might not come as much from the content itself, as from the ancillary elements that sit around or are applied to the content. The product (here the content) might ultimately be given away for free, or perhaps nearly free. Consider, for example, institutional licensing models for content -- that ensure access and affordability for all, and at a lower cost per student. We are already seeing these on campus for music and video, so when will digital textbooks follow? Content producers could do this with the understanding that making use of the content opens a host of new opportunities for revenue for content producers beyond what the content alone could provide.
Does that answer the question, or just raise more?
This is not related to your current post, but just a question for you....I recently read in Entertainment Weekly (yes!) that Madonna (and other prominent musicians) are moving away from the "big name" record labels and going with start-ups, direct to consumers (via the web), or otherwise giving their music away. The article suggested that these moves were to promote fan loyalty and generate more listeners. And since the real money for the artists is in licensing, merchandise, touring, etc.--there's no problem for them.My question is this: "How do you think this growing trend is likely to impact the already shifting concepts (perceptions?) of copyright, ownership, "right to", and "on the web is free" that our customers bring to the table?
A very interesting question, Anonymous. By coincidence this dicussion also came up in one of our recent digital content strategic planning taskforce conference calls. For a long time many industries in the US have been moving toward consolidation. However, here is an example of how technology facilitates the startup, the entrepreneur -- by providing outlets for stars, like Madonna and Radiohead, to move more easily to other outlets for their content distribution. The music industry is still progressing through a dramatic evolution. What will be interesting is how this plays out in the textbook and other print content markets. Will faculty also decide to end-run the traditional channel (publishers) to provide content to students at lower cost? Models like Connexions could facilitate that movement -- providing mechanisms of peer review, use count, and other social networking review elements that could make publishing in such outlets more valuable than what traditional publishers currently provide.
More directly to the point of your question -- what are the implications for copyright and IP? I am not sure. To my knowledge, the jury is still somewhat out on the repurposing of content (e.g., mash-ups). There are also initiatives to revise copyright and provide greater flexibility in academic markets -- but if the content is primarily produced for the academic market (i.e., textbooks) then the financial implications for content producers (a fair use criterion) could be significant. That would favor, in my opinion, restricting an overly radical reinterpretation of copyright law with textbook or course material content.
As with most other industries, the concept of value will likely continue to move away from the product and more toward services and value-added elements that make the product of greater value to the consumer. Revenue might not come as much from the content itself, as from the ancillary elements that sit around or are applied to the content. The product (here the content) might ultimately be given away for free, or perhaps nearly free. Consider, for example, institutional licensing models for content -- that ensure access and affordability for all, and at a lower cost per student. We are already seeing these on campus for music and video, so when will digital textbooks follow? Content producers could do this with the understanding that making use of the content opens a host of new opportunities for revenue for content producers beyond what the content alone could provide.
Does that answer the question, or just raise more?
Friday, October 19, 2007
At EDUCAUSE '07 next week...
I will be at EDUCAUSE '07 next week, and will try to post a few blog messages from there. In addition, NACS will be hosting Innovate! Online all next week. If you missed Innovate in the summer, this event is worth attending -- if for no other reason than to get to see the Ray Kurzweil video. He's fantastic and has a message that no college store manager should miss.
-M
-M
Videos to Watch
Ok it is Friday, so what better to do than watch some videos. Actually, these videos are very much worth watching if you are interested in some perspectives on technology and learning. They were produced by Micahel Wesch, an assistant professor of anthropology at KSU a few months back. There is still one more to come out in the series, which should be available later this fall. The third one - A Vision of Today's Students - is particularly interesting, but I think the whole set provide a powerful message about technology and learning and society.
Michael will be a speaker for us at CAMEX this year and the LSG will be recommending to their members that they all attend his session. Michael is a junior prof at Kansas State, is about 29 years old, and if you see him present you will get a taste of what some of the next generation of faculty will be like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM Information R/evolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o A Vision of Students Today
Also, check out the following video too. It is a documentary produced by some of Michael's students and is very interesting as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ1jFaXgTnw&NR=1 Academia 2.0
Grab some popcorn, a colleague, and enjoy the shows!
-M
Michael will be a speaker for us at CAMEX this year and the LSG will be recommending to their members that they all attend his session. Michael is a junior prof at Kansas State, is about 29 years old, and if you see him present you will get a taste of what some of the next generation of faculty will be like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM Information R/evolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o A Vision of Students Today
Also, check out the following video too. It is a documentary produced by some of Michael's students and is very interesting as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ1jFaXgTnw&NR=1 Academia 2.0
Grab some popcorn, a colleague, and enjoy the shows!
-M
Thursday, October 11, 2007
E-lectures as digital course materials
Has anyone noticed lately some of the buzz around e-lectures? In the past couple months I have heard about e-lecture initiatives at Case Western, Air Force Academy, Providence College, and the University of Albama. In each case the faculty members are converting their regular lectures to a digital format -- typically with audio and copies of slides, and sometimes with video too. These e-lectures are then provided to students in advance of class. Class time is then used for doing other things -- like having discussion about or beyond content in the lecture, working through problem sets, engaging in team and project work, or other forms of more tactile, experiential learning. This has been around for a while, you say? Why should I care, you say? Well, in some cases they are viewed by faculty to be a substitute to traditional course materials. In examples like the Air Force Academy, they are working with publishers like Pearson to deliver the traditional course materials in digital form too, and linked to the e-lecture elements.
But this trend is also interesting because of some of the growing empirical evidence that goes with it -- evidence that suggests:
But this trend is also interesting because of some of the growing empirical evidence that goes with it -- evidence that suggests:
- E-lectures result in higher enrollment, student satisfaction, and student retention (a seemingly magically elusive high-target goal of many stakeholders)
- E-lectures result in better student performance on learning outcomes within class and in the subsequent classes on which that class builds
If the evidence eventually shows that this format can reduce the cost of course materials to students as well, then who knows what will happen next. One thing for sure, the above two bullet points and the evidence that backs them is likely to gain increased attention by more institutions. It may be a catalyst or enabling factor that gets more faculty moving to digital formats. That will in turn enable more use of digital content in the learning environment and move us one step further away from traditional print textbooks as the preferred method for delivering course content.
The question for stores, is what is our value proposition in this emerging educational model? What new or revised products or services can stores provide to support faculty initiatives in this area?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Your questions...
I am not sure who (if anyone) has discovered this blog yet. Do you have questions I can answer? What types of news stories are you interested in? Are you using digital content currently in your store? If so, how? What other things would you like to try?
Friday, October 5, 2007
More News on the SONY Reader...
Well -- two posts in one day. It must be Friday. :)
I just came across an interesting article about a growing partnership between SONY and Borders for selling ebooks. One aspect of this partnership will be a co-branded ebooks download store -- which might (hopefully) resolve some of the usability issues with Connect. The two also plan to jointly lobby publishers to provide more content for the reader.
Several publishers have recently agreed to provide more ebooks for the device -- including Pearson Education. I am not yet convinced that the device is ready for textbooks, but it is a notable experiment. It should also be a signal to college stores that publishers are interested in new channels. If we can define what the digital channels might look like that include the college store, we increase our chance of avoiding disintermediation.
As a side note -- SONY yesterday posted a position opening for the Director, International Digital Sales and Marketing, out of the Global Digital Business Group. It was not clear from the position posting as to whether this is a new job position, or one that has recently been vacated. We will watch to see who takes the position, however, as we continue to monitor the environment and seek out new potential partnership opportunities for stores.
I just came across an interesting article about a growing partnership between SONY and Borders for selling ebooks. One aspect of this partnership will be a co-branded ebooks download store -- which might (hopefully) resolve some of the usability issues with Connect. The two also plan to jointly lobby publishers to provide more content for the reader.
Several publishers have recently agreed to provide more ebooks for the device -- including Pearson Education. I am not yet convinced that the device is ready for textbooks, but it is a notable experiment. It should also be a signal to college stores that publishers are interested in new channels. If we can define what the digital channels might look like that include the college store, we increase our chance of avoiding disintermediation.
As a side note -- SONY yesterday posted a position opening for the Director, International Digital Sales and Marketing, out of the Global Digital Business Group. It was not clear from the position posting as to whether this is a new job position, or one that has recently been vacated. We will watch to see who takes the position, however, as we continue to monitor the environment and seek out new potential partnership opportunities for stores.
New Sony Reader
The new SONY reader is out. Not played with a SONY reader yet? You might consider it. I got one of the older models about a month ago using credit card points. At first I thought it would just a be a cool gadget to show when I talk to different groups about e-readers and their technology. However, once you get over some of the awkward characteristics of the reader, I find that it is actually quite nice. I may not go back to print books for reading again -- unless I can't find the book I want in an e-format.
The new SONY reader will be much like the last, with some improvements -- such as double the memory space. It also boasts the latest in e-ink technology -- displaying 8 shades of gray rather than 4. (It is rumored that Amazon's e-reader to be released next month is still using the 4-shade e-ink display.) The latest SONY reader also is reported to be somewhat brighter and able to display content at a faster rate.
As I noted, I have found the e-reader pretty handy and easy to use, once you get use to it's quirks. It would not be well-suited for textbooks or reference resources, but works great for leisure reading while on the plane, in the airport, or outback on the hammock on weekends. With nearly a half-dozen e-readers now or soon to be on the market in the US and Europe, e-readers may begin to turn the tide on slow e-book sales. The technology still has some ground to cover yet, however. My one real complaint about the SONY reader at this stage? It is SONY's online store -- Connect. The site was more difficult to navigate and less user friendly than the device itself -- an nearly unforgiveable error in today's world of web transactions.
The new SONY reader will be much like the last, with some improvements -- such as double the memory space. It also boasts the latest in e-ink technology -- displaying 8 shades of gray rather than 4. (It is rumored that Amazon's e-reader to be released next month is still using the 4-shade e-ink display.) The latest SONY reader also is reported to be somewhat brighter and able to display content at a faster rate.
As I noted, I have found the e-reader pretty handy and easy to use, once you get use to it's quirks. It would not be well-suited for textbooks or reference resources, but works great for leisure reading while on the plane, in the airport, or outback on the hammock on weekends. With nearly a half-dozen e-readers now or soon to be on the market in the US and Europe, e-readers may begin to turn the tide on slow e-book sales. The technology still has some ground to cover yet, however. My one real complaint about the SONY reader at this stage? It is SONY's online store -- Connect. The site was more difficult to navigate and less user friendly than the device itself -- an nearly unforgiveable error in today's world of web transactions.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Requesting your Use Cases...
A number of the digital content projects NACS is involved with on behalf of college stores have reached a stage where we require greater input and involvement from stores. To streamline the process of gathering input, we will be adopting a format for developing "use cases" that can be employed with several different groups. In this instance, use cases are stories about how people successfully and/or unsuccessfully complete transactions for digital content (e-textbooks, digital course materials, print-on-demand, etc.) through college stores. We are looking for college store volunteers willing to help us develop a set of use cases (individually and/or collaboratively) that we can use in response to requests from projects like the CSU Digital Marketplace, OhioLink digital textbook prototype, IMS' e-Textbook taskforce, in addition to others. Contribution of use cases is a critical process to facilitate college store input into future digital initiatives.
Use cases are a common modeling technique in systems development in which we identify stories or scenarios that capture the sequence of events that occur when an individual (actor) attempts to complete a process (in this case, a digital transaction through a college store). A use case answers a question, for example, "How do I (as a student) purchase digital resources for my biology class through the college store?" There are a number of scenarios by which this could happen. The use case breaks this down into the multiple possible scenarios and eventually into individual actions or events, along with the interactions required to achieve the goal. For example, one use case might describe the process by which students purchase content via "hang tags" with access codes. Another use case might describe a similar scenario where access codes are generated at the point of sale, either at the in-store register or online. Yet another use case might describe how students could purchase content using in-store print-on-demand technology. Other possible use cases might describe scenarios by which college stores could broker transactions for content provided through campus course management systems (e.g., Blackboard, WebCT, Sakai, Desire2Learn, Angel, etc.)
This is an opportunity for college stores to participate in defining and designing how we would like to see the transactions take place within our stores for digital content. We need individuals with store-level expertise and ideas about how college stores might be involved with such transactions to assist with developing these use cases. Most use cases are only a couple pages in length and at this stage they do not need to be completely detailed. The outcomes from this process will be used to help communicate to other stakeholder groups how college stores see themselves being involved in future digital content transactions. If you are willing to help develop the use case scenarios, even just one, please send your ideas to Mark Nelson, NACS' Digital Content Strategist (mnelson@nacs.org). Questions about developing the scenarios, or ideas you have for a scenario (even if you do not have time for scenario development), are also very welcome.
Use cases are a common modeling technique in systems development in which we identify stories or scenarios that capture the sequence of events that occur when an individual (actor) attempts to complete a process (in this case, a digital transaction through a college store). A use case answers a question, for example, "How do I (as a student) purchase digital resources for my biology class through the college store?" There are a number of scenarios by which this could happen. The use case breaks this down into the multiple possible scenarios and eventually into individual actions or events, along with the interactions required to achieve the goal. For example, one use case might describe the process by which students purchase content via "hang tags" with access codes. Another use case might describe a similar scenario where access codes are generated at the point of sale, either at the in-store register or online. Yet another use case might describe how students could purchase content using in-store print-on-demand technology. Other possible use cases might describe scenarios by which college stores could broker transactions for content provided through campus course management systems (e.g., Blackboard, WebCT, Sakai, Desire2Learn, Angel, etc.)
This is an opportunity for college stores to participate in defining and designing how we would like to see the transactions take place within our stores for digital content. We need individuals with store-level expertise and ideas about how college stores might be involved with such transactions to assist with developing these use cases. Most use cases are only a couple pages in length and at this stage they do not need to be completely detailed. The outcomes from this process will be used to help communicate to other stakeholder groups how college stores see themselves being involved in future digital content transactions. If you are willing to help develop the use case scenarios, even just one, please send your ideas to Mark Nelson, NACS' Digital Content Strategist (mnelson@nacs.org). Questions about developing the scenarios, or ideas you have for a scenario (even if you do not have time for scenario development), are also very welcome.
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